Paper-made composite furniture

ABSTRACT

Paper-made composite furniture comprises at least two connection tubes and at least one spacer that are coupled together. Each connection tube is a hollow tube with an inner side made of stiff paper and an outer side made of smooth paper. The connection tube has at least one latch groove. The spacer is a solid panel made of stiff paper with the outer side coated by smooth paper. The spacer has two sides wedged in the latch grooves of the connection tubes. The stiff paper has characteristics to withstand greater loading and pressure, thus can replace the conventional furniture made of woods, plastics or metal. The invention not only can reduce material, transportation and assembly costs, also can reduce environmental pollution and facilitate carrying and assembly during outing. The smooth paper can be formed with colors, patterns or texts, thus can provide greater visual appeal and ornamental efficacy.

This application is a continuation-in-part, and claims priority, of fromU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/817,226 filed on Jun. 17, 2010,entitled “ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION SHELVING COMBINATION”, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to composite furniture and particularly toassembled furniture made of paper.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There is a growing awareness of environmental protection in the modernsociety. In many people's mind the good quality of life is no longersimply pursuing fancy life style or material opulence, but trying tomake life more meaningful. Many people nowadays have changed their lifestyle from using expensive goods to those beneficial to the generalpublic, and try to live in a lifestyle that stresses on coexistencebetween human being and environment.

The conventional furniture, in order to meet consumers' requirements inassembly, disassembly, storage or flexibility in use, generally is madeof materials that consume a great amount of wood, metal or plasticmaterials. And greater sturdiness and durability are the main objective.

However, while wood, metal and plastic materials are sturdy and durable,they cause great harm to environments during production. Wood is naturalmaterial, but its growing speed is slow. During fabrication of woodenfurniture inadvertent impact can easily take place that results inscrapes or damages, and spoils the total appeal. Moreover, mending thedamaged surface of wooden material is difficult, hence it often happensthat the entire set of furniture has to be replaced that causes evenmore waste of the wood. The steel is heavier in weight and costs more interms of fabrication, construction and transportation, and also is moredifficult to recycle when replacement takes places, hence creates agreat impact to the environment. Plastics are easier to form intodesired shapes, but also generate a great deal of pollution duringproduction, and the wastes produced by the plastics are hard to bedecomposed, or even create environmental pollution problems such as airor water if they are treated by burning.

There is furniture made of corrugated paper on the market, such aschairs or cabinets. They are generally lighter than the furniture madeof woods or steel, and less likely to create environmental pollution.But they also have their share of shortcomings, such as deficient instructural strength and easily warp and deform when subject to greaterloading.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,604 discloses an eco-friendly cabinet framestructure which comprises a plurality of coupling tubes, a plurality ofpanels and a plurality of connector sets that are made from recyclableplastic material. Each coupling tube has a groove on the outer side. Thecoupling tubes are interconnected via the connector sets. The panels arewedged in the grooves of the coupling tubes, thereby to form theeco-friendly cabinet frame structure. However, the coupling tubes,panels and connector sets could still be thrown away or burned by usersmaliciously, which creates environmental pollution andnon-decomposition.

Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,562 discloses a composite storage rackconsisting of flat panels and ribs that use three-layer fiber boardswith a middle layer made of kraft paper mixed with resin. But the fiberboards are formed by compression of wooden fibers at a high pressure,hence is heavier in weight. Moreover, to make the fiber boardsmoisture-resistant is expensive. All these create a great burden toconsumers in terms of transportation and cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to solve thedisadvantages of the conventional paper furniture in material andtechnique by providing novel paper furniture assembled by connectiontubes and spacers formed by compression of multi-layer stiff paper andmulti-layer smooth paper.

To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention providespaper-made composite furniture which comprises at least two connectiontubes and at least one spacer that are coupled together. Each connectiontube is a hollow tube which has an inner side made of stiff paper and anouter side made of smooth paper. The connection tube has at least onelatch groove. The spacer is a solid panel made of the stiff paper withthe outer side coated by the smooth paper. The spacer has two sideswedged respectively in the latch grooves of the connection tubes.

By means of the structure set forth above, the invention provides manyadvantages, notably:

1. The paper-made composite furniture is made of paper, hence can berecycled easily without generating environmental pollution.

2. The invention employs stiff paper which is lighter in weight andsturdy, hence can be transported easily to save manpower, and also iseasier to fabricate to reduce cost.

3. The invention also uses smooth paper which can be formed with colorsor patterns or texts thereon, thus can provide furniture withdiversified styles to improve visual appeal and enhance ornamentalefficacy.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages ofthe invention will be more readily apparent from the following detaileddescription, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the paper-made composite furniture of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the paper-made composite furniture ofthe invention.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the paper-made composite furniture of theinvention formed in an embodiment of a chair.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the paper-made composite furniture ofthe invention formed in an embodiment of a chair.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the paper-made composite furniture of theinvention formed in another embodiment of a cabinet.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the paper-made composite furniture of theinvention formed in yet another embodiment of a table.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2, the paper-made composite furniture of theinvention comprises at least two connection tubes 2 and at least onespacer 3. Each connection tube 2 is a hollow tube with an inner sidemade of stiff paper and an outer side made of smooth paper. Eachconnection tube 2 has at least one latch groove 21, and a firstextension section 221 and a second extension section 222 at two sides ofthe latch groove 21. The first extension section 221 is formed at awidth smaller than that of the second extension section 222. The spacer3 is a solid panel made of stiff paper coated by smooth paper on theouter side thereof. The spacer 3 has two sides 31 wedged respectively inthe corresponding grooves 21 of the connection tubes 2 to form securelatching.

The stiff paper can be a sand tube paper. The smooth paper can be akraft paper. The connection tubes 2 and spacer 3 can be respectivelyformed by compression of multi-layer stiff paper and multi-layer smoothpaper. By means of the structure set forth above, the connection tubes 2are spaced from each other with the latch grooves 21 respectively wedgedby the two sides 31 of the spacer 3, thereby form partition-likecomposite furniture 1.

In another embodiment of the invention, the connection tube 2 a has twolatch grooves 21 a on the abutting outer sides that can be incorporatedand assembled with the spacers 3 to form various types of furniture, asshown in FIGS. 3 and 4. By interconnecting the connection tubes 2 and 2a with the spacers 3 wedged in the latch grooves 21 and 21 a of theconnection tubes 2 and 2 a, varying styles of furniture 1A such aschairs can be formed. The second extension section 222 a of theconnection tube 2 a is formed at a width greater than that of the firstextension section 221 a, hence the spacer 3 has a greater loadingcapability in the direction perpendicular to the second extensionsection 222 a. Moreover, the first extension section 221 a of theconnection tube 2 a and the coupled spacer 3 form a smaller gap at theupper side of the composite furniture 1A, hence an additional spacer 3 acan be disposed above the spacer 3 to form a smooth surface to providemore comfortable sitting and a neat appearance.

The composite furniture 1 of the invention further includes a pluralityof corner joints 4 to couple with the connection tubes 2 as shown inFIGS. 5 and 6. The connection tubes 2 and 2 a are assembled with thecorner joints 4 in various styles to form secure latching andpositioning, and the spacers 3 are wedged in the latch grooves 21 and 21a of the connection tubes 2 and 2 a, thereby other types of thecomposite furniture 1B and 1C such as cabinet or table are formed.

The connection tubes 2 and 2 a and spacers 3 can be assembled with thecorner joints 4 to form various configurations according to requirementswhen in use. The stiff paper is lighter in weight and sturdy, hence iseasier to transport and assemble and can save manpower, and also can berecycled without creating environmental pollution. Moreover, the smoothpaper can be formed with different colors or printed with varyingpatterns or texts on the surface thereof, thus varying styles ofcomposite furniture can be formed with greater visual appeal andornamental efficacy.

What is claimed is:
 1. A paper-made composite furniture, comprising atleast two connection tubes and at least one spacer coupled together,wherein: each of the at least two connection tubes is a hollow tubeincluding an inner side made of stiff paper and an outer side made ofsmooth paper, and at least one latch groove; and the at least one spaceris a solid panel made of stiff paper coated by smooth paper at an outerside thereof and includes two sides wedged respectively in the latchgrooves of the connection tubes.
 2. The paper-made composite furnitureof claim 1, wherein the connection tube includes a first extensionsection and a second extension section at two sides of the latch groove,the first extension section being formed at a width smaller than that ofthe second extension section.
 3. The paper-made composite furniture ofclaim 1, wherein the connection tubes and the spacer are respectivelyformed by compression of multi-layer stiff paper and multi-layer smoothpaper.
 4. The paper-made composite furniture of claim 1, wherein thestiff paper is sand tube paper and the smooth paper is kraft paper. 5.The paper-made composite furniture of claim 1, wherein the surface ofthe smooth paper is formed with colors, patterns or texts.
 6. Thepaper-made composite furniture of claim 1 further including a pluralityof corner joints to couple with the connection tubes.